Chapter 9. Consequences.

"There is a prophecy of Matthew for a period of 5,000 years. This is one of the three great prophecies. The other two have already been executed. It says: "When day and night lose their rhythm, it will be born, marking the decline of humanity." This prophecy is a secret known only to Roman senators and upper—class pontiffs... As you now understand, Grey is the harbinger of the night. Sealing his core during his awakening is the safest option for all of humanity. We must eliminate such a threat. We had no choice from the very beginning," Adam said in a sincere and apologetic tone, while Katerina was trying to heal the wound of a child who had lost consciousness long ago, and the guards of the entire palace were converging on the ceremony site.

For Katerina, Adam's whole soulful speech was reduced to mumbling. 100% of her attention was focused on trembling hands and chanting healing spells to help her dying child hold on to life. Tears rolled non-stop from her beautiful blue eyes. And the thought process was reduced to an incoherent hoarse whisper.

"Son, don't die, please! Please open your eyes, I beg you, open your eyes. Live, son, LIVE, don't leave your mother."

"You promised you'd always be with me, please, Grey, open your eyes, don't die, don't die, don't die!" muttered Katerina, watching her blurred vision as her hands turned red.

Her voice became quieter and quieter, sometimes turning into an incomprehensible rasp. In her madness, she heard the words "Grey" and "Prophecy" from someone else. Words that further inflamed her unstable state.

"THIS IS MY SON!!!! THIS IS MY BOY!!!" shouted Katerina, choking with sobs. Her figure continued to shake incessantly. Her hands, covered in her own child's blood, were feeling the wound on the boy's chest and emitting a faint green glow. They were trembling, but they continued to carefully provide emergency care in the hope of saving Gray's fading life.

Remembering that the child has not been breathing for half a minute. More tears flowed from Katerina's eyes, the color of which changed to red. Her head was empty, and her thoughts had disappeared from her head. She bent down, pressing her lips to his in an attempt to perform artificial respiration.

"No, no, no..." Katerina continued to whisper, shaking her head and not looking up from her son, not wanting to confirm her hypothesis. She could practically feel his body getting colder, and the life draining out of him.

Kneeling down and holding the child tightly, as if never wanting to let him go. She clung to his chest in the hope of hearing the cherished sound. She spat out blood in a desperate attempt to seal the wound and resume his heartbeat. Her eyes, which were streaming with tears of blood, flashed with despair, hatred, and pleading.

In those moments, happy memories were playing out in front of her, as if in accelerated motion. She remembered the first time her boy said "mom." She remembered how he looked at her lovingly, as if she were his whole world. I remembered how he laughed carelessly. How I argued with my sister a few moments before this tragedy.

She remembered his last sad look of unwillingness directed at her when she sent that hated priest flying.

Her lips trembled non-stop as they left Gray's face once more. Her gaze was fixed on his chest. She was afraid. I was very afraid. I was more afraid than ever to look at his expressionless face.

She felt so betrayed. Betrayed by her husband, betrayed by God, betrayed by the fucking world that wanted to take her child, and even by Gray himself, who promised to always be with her. But here he is.

A small three-year-old child lies lifeless. His heart refuses to beat, and there's nothing she can do about it. She can't do anything. With every passing moment, Katerina sank deeper into despair. She had an only son. And she couldn't protect him. What a stupid, irresponsible, useless mother. It felt like her heart was being torn apart. Her world was literally crumbling under the weight of harsh reality.

"Don't go, darling, please, no, I beg you, Grey, come back, come back to me, come back to your sister. I need you, son, please, please, please..."

{Somewhere in an unknown place in the dark.}

The little child couldn't feel anything, couldn't move. He could only watch.

[The darkness. It's dark again. So familiar, so far away, so calm. Still not that familiar. Again and again the darkness. There is no sliminess here. Only the absence of light.]

[What is it? Where am I? I remember seeing a dagger in my chest. Come to think of it, where is the dagger? Where are my breasts? A. Yes. The darkness. There is only darkness. It's always been that way. But what are these memories? Did I make this up? It's time to return to the darkness.]

[No way! No! No! I don't want to go into the dark. I don't want to go back. I want my mom. Like the first time. I want to be in her warm embrace. But what can I do? Nothing. Just being here, maybe it's not so bad to be back in the dark.]

[DON'T YOU DARE, YOU LITTLE SHIT. DON'T YOU DARE GIVE UP.]

I heard a furious roar in my head. Then the entire black space turned red. Then I felt a piercing, hateful, bloody gaze on me. Rivers of blood flowed all around. Specks of light appeared, which burned me and caused me great pain. Dozens, no, hundreds of human silhouettes could be seen around, who were also trembling under that bloody gaze. I could feel their fear, their unwillingness to approach. But something drew them to me.

["FIGHT IT, BRAT. No matter how, no matter why, FIGHT. Your mother and sister are waiting for you," I heard a voice in my thoughts. That's my voice. But then I heard the desperate sobs of a familiar, gentle, but now anguished voice]

"Don't go, darling, please, no, I'm begging you, Grey, come back, come back to me, come back to your sister. I need you, son, please, please, please....."

[The voice was so far away, but so familiar. That desperate hoarse voice caused me much more pain than those useless specks of light.]

I ran towards the sound of that voice. Tears of hellish pain welled up in my eyes, but I didn't care.

[I have to fight. I'll get to the voice, no matter what it takes. I don't want to hear that anguished voice filled with pain and despair again. Don't want. don't want.]

"Adam, Allaric, Fulvius... I... will never forgive you," thought Katerina, when her grief and thoughts of revenge were interrupted by a quiet cough, accompanied by sharp hoarse breaths.

"I DON'T WANT TO," the boy screamed, spitting out blood.

"My son!!! You're alive! You're alive! Good! Mom is here, Mom is with you, Mom won't let anyone hurt you. Listen to Mom, don't fall asleep. Keep breathing. That's it, that's it, good." – checking that her son's life is not in danger. Katerina watched in awe and disbelief as his condition stabilized. Katerina's face instantly changed, and she looked at the others present. A look that could make the fiercest demon tremble.

"Cassia, launch an emergency evacuation plan immediately. Spare no one! Uncover all agents!" as she continued to set protective magic spells around Gray, she shouted in a commanding voice with a hint of iron in it. Those notes promised blood. She would like to see who would dare to stand in her way now.

"That's right, ma'am!" said the maid, jumping into the shadow of the acropolis. She appeared behind Eve, plunging a dagger into her arm, forcing Grace to let go. The girl recently lost consciousness after hearing her mother's screams and seeing her brother's condition. Grabbing the princess with one hand and securing her with her tail, Cassia jumped back into the shadows and appeared next to her mistress, breathing heavily.

At the same time, several noble nobles launched suicide attacks at the approaching guards. Catching them by surprise and using all your strength. So they were able to thin out the ranks of the guards. Giving his mistress a way out. But this situation was about to change very soon.

"Ma'am, I have the princess. Is the young master okay?" asked Kassia, standing next to Katerina.

"He's going to be fine, he's going to be fine," Katerina replied with an extremely serious face.

During the dialogue, Cassia pointed her hand to the sky and launched the "Fireworks" spell into the air. The spell exploded in the blue sky with its dark black splendor. Everything happened so fast that no one had time to react. By the time people realized what had happened, it was already too late.

"KATERINA, WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING? Didn't you hear me? Your child is dangerous. He's a child of darkness!!! He doesn't have our blood! Look at his hair! He's not our son. Listen to me, prophecies are not nonsense! Especially one of the three great prophecies. He is destined to destroy HUMANITY! Not a province. Not a country. humanity. Do you support genocide?" shouted Adam, realizing that everything was getting out of control.

"A PROPHECY? THE EMPIRE? HUMANITY? TO HELL WITH IT ALL! TO HELL WITH THE PROPHECY. TO HELL WITH THE EMPIRE. TO HELL WITH MY HATEFUL BASTARD OF A HUSBAND. TO HELL WITH GOD. TO HELL WITH THE WHOLE FUCKING WORLD, if anything else happens to my family today, I'll take care of fulfilling that damn prophecy myself."

"Listen carefully, Adam, I swear right here and now, if you don't get out of my way right now, I will spend my life hunting down and killing every scum of the province of Light. DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME? Or maybe your vaunted humanity is afraid of the cripple whose magic core you broke with your own hands?" Although it was unpleasant for her to say such words, Katerina understood that she had to do it.

It is almost impossible to escape from the provincial capital with two children, one of whom is injured. Yes, she has the biggest fist here, but if Adam or the church decide to use all possible means, she will not be able to save her children from the trap that their home has turned out to be.

"Adam, for the last time, let me leave in a good way and live the life of an ordinary mortal with my son. I promise I'll come back for revenge much later. You may even have time to prepare. Or you can try to stop me, and I'll try to escape. But I promise that I will bury your entire capital along the way. You know perfectly well that I can do this. Choose one. Now. If you don't retreat in 5 seconds, I will start a massacre." Katerina said it with such firmness that it seemed as if her words could cut through metal.

Magical elements continued to gather around the woman, and her slender sword was already drawn and easily accessible, ready to begin a feast of blood with her mistress.

Adam hesitated. Today, everything didn't go according to plan. Initially, he had only planned to make sure that Gray possessed the element of darkness. After confirming this question, and also considering the fact that night fell on the world around the time of his birth. Considering his black hair, which by all laws of logic shouldn't be like that. He could confirm with 90% certainty that Gray was a child of darkness. His duties only included reporting this to the Imperial capital. But no. I had to act.

Adam did not plan to act immediately, but the appearance of the god of Light violated all his arrangements. After receiving the direct instructions of their god, the entire church, led by the three cardinals, had to move. Adam, whose position as vicar was conditioned by the full support of the church, had no choice in the matter. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he hoped that his wife would support his decision, because the issue of the extermination of mankind should not be taken lightly.

Adam was currently caught between a rock and a hard place. He knew that the church took matters of prophecy seriously, and he also saw the madness in his wife's eyes. Only he knew how insanely strong this woman was. Only he knew that she was telling the absolute truth about the possibility of wiping out half of the capital while trying to escape. To complicate the already stalemate, Claudius and Aurelius were ready to take advantage of the situation at any moment.

Everyone was looking at him, waiting for the King's decision. He looked at Katerina one last time, hoping that she would listen to him. Looking for any sign of indecision, he watched, but all he saw was fiery rage and determination, ready to explode at any moment.

"Let them go, there's no point in taking a child's life. The cripple no longer poses a threat to the nation and humanity," Adam announced his decision.